Imperial Scorch Earth Atrocities
The Imperial Scorch Earth Atrocities are series of atrocities committed by Zorzal's force under the command of Herm Fule Maio to implement Scorched Earth Tactic to combat the JSDF by decimating villagers, towns and cities as well as slaughtering innocent people within the Empire. There are two purposes for these atrocities are to deny JSDF from acquiring resources from Imperial villagers and cities in order to slow them down and for the Zorzal's army to fund their war effort by plundering golds, food and others resources within villages, towns and cities. Similar to Molt Solt Augustus's initial scorched earth tactic against the JSDF in response to Second Battle of Alnus Hill, Zorzal own use of scorched earth tactic only brainlessly repeated Molt's gigantic failure to slow down and weaken JSDF's military activities; Such an idiotic repeat of past failures is due to Zorzal and his generals stick-in-the-mud mindset and ignorance about the fundamental nature of the JSDF as a modern army. Background Soon after seizing power and becoming a prince regent, Zorzal gathered his subordinates and discussed the plan to achieve the victory over Japan. Grudgingly admit that they cannot defeat JSDF in the open field, Viscount Helm, Sir Mudra and Karasta proposed the more vicious idea of raiding the area near Arnus hill as well as Imperial towns, villagers and cities using demi-humans as well as imperial troops disguised as members of the JSDF. By doing so, Helm and his friends had the following objectives. # Replenished their own resources and expenses. # Denied JSDF from accessing the local resources. # The imperial troops, posing as a normal villagers and traders, could launched a surprise attack to JSDF members. During confusion, they will swarm monsters to attack the confused JSDF. # By using as disguised imperial troops in raiding, Helm and others intended to put the blame on JSDF and create the rifts between them and local civilians. During the meeting, princess Pina vehemently opposed such a despicable tactic. Not only because the tactic was so atrocious by nature and did nothing to actually damage the JSDF, but also because Zorzal and his goons had absolutely no problems in slaughtering the Empire’s own citizens for their own ego. But her opinion as a voice of reason were bluntly ignored, and the plan was eventually carried out. Attacks on the Areas surrounding the Alnus hill Several days after the siege of the Jade Palace had ended, Helm and his generals started raiding villages and cities located between the imperial capital and the Alnus hill. By deploying many types of monsters, They effectively wiped out several communities in the areas of Duma mountain range. Countless unfortunate imperial citizens fell victim to these brutal massacres. Many survivors were captured and likely to be sold into the slavery. During the travel, the chief of Coda Village came across several utterly ruined villages. He realized that these weren't the act of bandits as they wouldn't destroy their own sources of foods and supplies. Eventually, he became a firsthand witness of the massacre himself and quickly took note some abnormalities. Many monsters, participating in the attack, were rarely seen in this deep in the Empire's land. Moreover, their equipment was unusual new for the hordes of monsters who mostly relied on looting, to obtain such equipment (The typical looted equipment will have marks and damages as a result of using). Soon after, the village chief noticed Helm and his generals while they were giving orders to the monsters. He correctly concluded that the imperial army is the culprit of these atrocities and terrifyingly questioned why the Imperial Army conducted attacks on it own people. Before the village chief could silently left the scene, he stumbled upon two children who survived the massacre. This, unfortunately, caused Helm and monsters nearby to notice them. The village chief hurriedly took two children in his wagon and fled. Helm immediately sent the group of black dogs and centaurs to chase them down to prevent witnesses. The pursuing monsters quickly caught up the fleeing wagon which ultimately crashed and flipped over after the horse collapsed from the exhaustion. As the village chief prepared to make a last stand, he and children were saved by Itami and his group who encountered them by chance. The village chief and the surviving children later became the first living proofs of Imperial Army's atrocities. To cover their tracks in their mission to rescue Pina, Itami and his gangs slaughtered all pursuing centaurs so none of them could report to Imperial officials of their presence. Imperial Army's strategical and tactical blunders “They say that, but at the very least, the people of Arnus do not believe them. This is because there are many witnesses and pieces of evidence stating that Zorzal-sama was using bandits and demi-humans to do his dirty work.”- Zorzal's force failed to fool the civilians into thinking that the JSDF attacked them, depicted in light novel chapter 7 volume 1. Zorzal and his cohorts wholeheartedly believed that they could fool their own people into hating the JSDF. However, what they never realize that peasants and civilians were actually and literally smarter than them as the majority of Alnus villagers and civilians could instantly see through the disguised Imperial troops due to how poorly their disguised was as their green suit looked nothing like JSDF combat uniform due to Herm Fule Maio's half-baked thinking as he never take into the account of the texture or any others feature of the suits like Kelvar armor that covered the whole body or armband and only focusing on the colour, even though it doesn't even match the green colour of JSDF suits. Furthermore, their methods of attack also heavily incriminated them rather than the JSDF. The best examples is when the Elder of Coda Village could deduct the attack on his villager was not the work of the JSDF, judging from the lethal injuries in the dead bodies of slaughtered villagers that are caused by arrows and swords not from firearms. Another issues was that the JSDF never uses horses or Wyverns to move around or conduct attacks as they use Humvees and helicopters, which one of the biggest fact distinguishing them from the Imperial Army. Since the purpose is to spread terror coping with their thought that civilians weren't able to see through Imperial's actions, the Imperial troops also failed to kill all villagers and inadvertently, leaving some survivors to tell the tales about the atrocities caused by the JSDF to instigate hatred among Imperial citizen against the JSDF, ignorant of the fact that these survivors pointed their fingers at Zorzal and his army rather than the JSDF. Finally, the titanic evidence of the Imperial's atrocities was actually Herm and his generals themselves. Due to their lack of any sense of discretion, they mostly presented during the massacres of the villagers while wearing Imperial armors, making a lot of survivors like Coda Village Elders and many more to realize clearly who actually violated them. The swords they held were still stained with blood; blood which probably belonged to the villagers. The hilt of the sword bore the crest of the Imperial Army.- the weapons used by Imperial Army become a hard evidence of their misdeeds, depicted in light novel, volume 7, chapter 1 Furthermore, Herm's poor planning also makes he never think of the JSDF's own ability of investigation as he always equipped his soldiers with standard weapons that bear Imperial Army's insignia to carry out the atrocities. This enables the JSDF to use this elements by confiscating weaponry from Imperial Guerrilla soldiers they shot down during any massacres conducted by Imperial Army on villages and town to prove their innocence to any Imperial citizens who were attacked by Imperial Army and never encountered the JSDF before. Generally, the plan and tactic itself also incredibly dumb as Zorzal and Herm mindlessly assumed that the JSDF were like all the enemies, the Empire had faced in the past, which were the army lived-off-the-land like all the medieval armies in their world without considering the fact that resources within the villagers, towns and cities of the Empire meant nothing to the JSDF's operations as well as the JSDF's strong logistic foundation. Cicero and all pro-peace senators vehemently criticized this kinds of tactic as it makes the Imperial people to lose all kinds of trust toward the Imperial government. This was because this strategy of deceiving people by pushing the blame to others would shatter the faith of the people and they would never again have faith in the nation. Even if they had to resort to cruel methods, the Empire had always adopted the attitude of “Yes, I did this. Do you have a problem with that?” Although this might make people hate the Empire, it would also make them fear it, and thus they would submit. - Cicero and the pro-peace scornfully mocks Zorzal and his generasls policy in blaming the JSDF for their misdeeds, depicted in light novel chapter 7 volume 1. Aftermath What awaited them were the hateful gazes of the surrounding civilians. General Helm and the others might have done so in the name of fighting the JSDF, but ultimately, he and all his men had essentially waged scorched earth tactics. They had attacked villages and burned the houses and raped the women and killed the men and driven them across the land. These tactics had earned the Imperial soldiery the undying hatred of the smallfolk, and now they raised their vengeful blades against these broken men. And so, the villagers chased them down before hacking them to pieces. - The consequences of the Scorch Earth Atrocities on the Imperial Troops during the JSDF Blitzkrieg Offensive, depicted in volume 8 chapter 8 of the light novel After many failed attacks on the JSDF during Imperial Guerrilla Offensive, Herm began to doubt the effectiveness of the tactics as he couldn't stop the JSDF from butchering his troops and lost all encounters. Furthermore, he also realized that the JSDF wasn't being slowed down at all even with the surprise attacks by the Dars, causing him to agonize over his failure. During JSDF Blitzkrieg Offensive, all villagers who were the victims of the Imperial Scorch Earth Atrocities ambushed and killed retreated Imperial troops for revenge after the JSDF blasted through all Imperial defense perimeters. When Zorzal and all his generals realized too late that their so-called brilliant strategy was gigantic failure after the Blitzkrieg, the Scorch Earth Tactics was stopped but there was nothing for the pro-war to improve the situation. Gallery Poorly Disguised Imperials.jpg|Poorly disguised Imperial soldiers in their "Men in Green" attire as their uniforms barely match standard JSDF uniforms as well as the fact they use standard Imperial weaponry consisting of wooden spears and crossbows, instead of guns Category:Events Category:Battles